1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid lubricant, an image forming apparatus, and an image forming method.
2. Description of Related Art
In electrophotographic image forming apparatuses, a technology in which a solid lubricant comprising a wax and a metal soap (fatty acid metal salt) is applied on the surface of an image bearing member (photoconductor) from the standpoint of suppressing abrasion of the surface of the image bearing member and a cleaning blade for cleaning the surface of the image bearing member is known (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2006-220819 and 2009-109950).
The technology is effective to suppress image density unevenness in an image formed (especially half-tone image in intermediate density area) as compared with the case where the metal soap is used alone as a lubricant. In the technology, however, the applicability of the lubricant to the image bearing member is insufficient in some cases, causing application failure or application unevenness of the lubricant on the image bearing member. Thus, the abrasion of the cleaning blade is accelerated, resulting in the occurrence of cleaning failure in some cases.